Icarus Picture

Icarus was the son of the highly-respected Athenian Daedalus, the well-known architect who built the Labyrinth on the island of Crete. When Daedalus revealed the secret of escape from the Labyrinth to Theseus, who slew the Minotaur and fled Crete, King Minos was so enraged that he imprisoned Daedalus and Icarus in the Labyrinth themselves.

Daedalus built he and his son wings of feathers and wax to escape by. He warned Icarus not to fly too high to the sun, lest his wings melt and he fall to his death. But Icarus, so thrilled at being able to fly, soared too close to the sun, whereupon his wings melted and he fell and died upon the ocean.